Mary Puma
Analyst · Stifel
Thank you, Daniel. With me today is Kevin Brewer, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Doug Lawson, Executive Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Strategy. We are all participating in this call remotely, so I would like to apologize in advance for any technical difficulties. If you have not seen a copy of our press release issued last night, it is available on our website. Playback service will also be available on our website as described in our press release. Please note that comments made today about our expectations for future revenues, profits and other results are forward-looking statements under the SEC's safe harbor provision. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to the risks inherent in our business. These risks are described in detail in our Form 10-K annual report and other SEC filings, which we urge you to review. Our actual results may differ materially from our current expectations. We do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Axcelis posted a very strong quarter due to the growing momentum of the Purion product line and strength of the semiconductor industry, particularly the mature process technology segment. Revenue for the third quarter was $176.7 million with earnings per share of $0.81, driven by strong gross margins of 43.3%. Quarterly systems sales increased significantly to $126.2 million in implant systems record. CS&I, our aftermarket business, continued to provide a major contribution to our top line and gross margin with Q3 revenue of $50.5 million. In the third quarter, 91% of shipments went to mature foundry logic customers, and 9% to memory customers with an even split between DRAM and NAND. Due to growing strength in the mature process technology market, we now estimate that segment will account for greater than 80% of system revenue for the full year 2021. The geographic mix of our systems shipments in the third quarter was China, 70%; Europe, 15%; Korea, 5%; and the rest of the world, 10%. In Q4, although China will continue to account for our largest percent of systems revenue, we expect the overall regional mix to be more balanced. Turning to fourth quarter guidance. We expect revenue of approximately $190 million, gross margins of approximately 41.5%, operating profit of approximately $37 million and earnings per share of approximately $0.84. We now expect to exceed $640 million in revenue for the full year 2021. The increase in revenue since the last quarter has been driven by the continued growth of the mature process technology segment and the early stages of a memory capacity build. We believe both market segments will contribute to what we expect will be a strong 2022 for the industry and for Axcelis. Our visibility into the first half of next year is very good as we are currently booking systems into Q3 2022. Overall demand for capital equipment in the semiconductor industry is being driven by several factors, including chip shortages, high fab utilization across all segments, causing significant new fab investment, government incentive programs, creating geographical expansion opportunities for our customers, the rapid growth of the power device market, both silicon and silicon carbide to support automotive industry plans for electrification. And finally, the fundamental underlying drivers that started this growth cycle, 5G, data analytics and AI. We believe that the implant TAM has increased significantly. This is driven by an overall increase in wafer starts by the growth of foundries serving the mature markets where ion implant is a fab bottleneck due to the large mix of products. And lastly, by the power and image sensor markets, which are more implant intensive and require our more advanced Purion product extensions. The mature and specialty markets are generating sustainable growth with Purion product extensions designed to serve the power device and image sensor market. This is the case across all implant types, high current, medium current and high energy. We have invested significantly in products for these markets over the last several years, and we continue to invest to maintain the leadership our Purion products enjoy. In Q3, we successfully closed an evaluation of a Purion H200 for a silicon power customer, highlighting our continued strength in the Power segment. We believe the Power segment will comprise 25% to 30% of our systems revenue for 2021 with the Image Sensors segment accounting for 20% to 25%. Strength in these segments contribute significantly to our margin expansion. Our growth in these segments is clear and sustainable and most importantly, it is tied to long-term trends beyond any increases driven by semiconductor shortages. Turning to the memory market. Since the end of Q3 and early into Q4, we have seen an increase in memory shipments for both NAND and DRAM applications. Last week, we announced that we shipped multiple systems to a memory customer and successfully closed the evaluation of a Purion H for a new NAND high current customer. This customer now has both the Purion H and Purion XE qualified for production. Revenue for that system will be recognized in the fourth quarter. We maintain a strong and growing position in memory, and we expect 2022 to see continued capacity additions. We believe DRAM will be stronger in the first half of the year with the subsequent pickup in NAND later in 2022. We continue to see a high degree of activity in the advanced logic, where we have a Purion H evaluation underway that is expected to successfully close in Q4. This qualification will open the door for production buys in 2022 and 2023. We are also seeing an increase in activity in the Japanese market especially related to power devices, image sensors and general mature devices. Interest is strong for both our Purion and legacy tools. In fact, earlier this week, we announced the launch of GSD Ovation, high-current and high-energy batch implanters. We expect these enhanced legacy products to be well received by 200-millimeter customers and to provide potential CS&I upgrade opportunities to our large installed base. The valuations are key to developing new customers, increasing footprint at existing customers and penetrating new segments. We currently have 5 Purion evaluation tools in the field focused on supporting future growth. These include a Purion Dragon, a Purion H, a Purion XE silicon carbide and 2 Purion XEmax', which are positioned across key target segments, including advanced logic, DRAM, image sensor and power devices. We expect to close multiple evaluations in Q4 and plan to ship additional evaluations in the fourth quarter and throughout 2022. In 2021, we are closing in on our $650 million revenue model, thanks to the success of Purion and a very strong semiconductor market. As a result, we are developing an implant-driven revenue model beyond $650 million that we will introduce at a virtual Investor Day currently planned for December 9. Now I'll turn the call over to Kevin to discuss third quarter financial details as well as several operational topics, including supply chain management and progress with our Korean manufacturing site. Kevin?